1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ringlets and, more particularly, to a method of achieving deterministic latency for packets in a ringlet
2. Background Information
Ringlets lack the ability to broadcast information at the same time to all devices or nodes coupled to the ringlet. Information in the form of electrical signals is passed around the ringlet from one device or node to another in a sequential fashion. Because a ringlet may have more than one device or node simultaneously transferring information to the ringlet, there is a large random component to the delay of the delivery of information in the form of electronic signals from one device or node to another.
Typically, the transmitting node includes a fixed size storage unit or buffer having memory locations to store incoming signals. Typically, the size of this storage buffer is chosen to match the largest amount of time that the node could be transferring its own data to the ringlet while simultaneously receiving data from a previous node coupled to the ringlet. However, the node could originate different amounts of information at different times and the relationship between when the incoming data is arriving and when a node is originating data is not fixed. A need therefore exists for an approach to ringlets that addresses these problems.